Shiloh: Taking Solace in Such Cold Familiar Places

Local band, Shiloh has a familiar sound unlike anything one might expect to hear. Imagine a circle of friends gathered around a campfire, drinking whisky while their faces fill with warmth and ashes. The smoke creates a hazy comfort in good company. Voices rise and fall, like dominoes set to a tickling rhythm.

Chicago-based Shiloh has a knack for capturing the sadness that cold Chicago weather can bring. Call it seasonal affective disorder—call it what you will, but this band can sing a hymn of firsthand experience that so many can relate to. Sex and Resin speaks to the melancholy winters we dread each year. There is a collective sense of belonging, taking in one another’s breath from tired lungs and exhaling subtleties so unabashed and free.

“So many things that make me feel empty like sex and resin and cigarettes and TV, oh, I live them fill me up.”

Shiloh’s upcoming record, from which this track is a prelude to, is called Misses. It is a full-length album currently being mastered at Handwritten Recording. Misses is what the band calls “an orchestrated rock ‘n’ roll record. There are loud guitars, organs, three part harmonies, pianos and quiet acoustic songs.”

In the upcoming album there is a troika comprising consecutive tracks that weave a trilogy. Sonorous and endearing, Shiloh uses a lo-fi ambience that is difficult for so many artists try and fail to capture, unless they are congruent, in song and in mentality.

“Chicago gets so cold.” Sex and Resin reiterates these words throughout the song. The simplicity resonates a deeper connection while creating an emotional attachment to its content.

And is that not what music is about? Finding an outlet to express yourself: like hearing a song with lyrics that speak to you, wording it in just a way that the intimacy is immediate and uncanny.

This could explain the possessiveness of fans referring to their favorite music as “My music.” Listen to “my music” as “I understand it” and interpret it any way you would like. It is a form of misplaced identity that should be diagnosed and treated. But one fact stands universally true: If lyrics speak to you than they speak to a community of like-minded folks- reminding you that you’re not alone, that your situation is not nearly as dire as you may think. Take solace in this fleeting momentous occasion. Listen to Shiloh’s “Sex and Resin.”